Gen. McChrystal needs to stop blabbing and start winning war in Afghanistan

By RICHARD SISK

|DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU|

Jun 22, 2010 | 11:37 PM

Layout from Rolling Stone magazine's feature on Gen. McChrystal. (AP)

WASHINGTON - Stan McChrystal came out of the military's Special Ops with an unwavering faith in his specialness that went against the strict code of fellow snake-eaters.

The "black ops" types hardly ever talk, much less brag, about what they do and how they do it.

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But Gen. McChrystal went on "60 Minutes" to display his warrior-monk ethos, show off his Spartan living quarters and jog around the camp in the predawn darkness while lesser mortals of the "regular" Army slept.

And what Special Ops commandos really don't do is this - provide color commentary on the failings of the regulars, and the suits and politicians in the chain of command, as McChrystal did in the Rolling Stone piece aptly titled "Runaway General."

In America, generals with runaway egos and mouths tend to become gone-away generals. It happened famously during the Korean War, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur defied his boss, President Harry Truman, once too often. MacArthur came home to parades, but history judged Truman the winner, along with the principle that generals answer to elected, civilian leaders.

Obama made McChrystal wait before the general was invited aboard Air Force One. Back at the Pentagon, the symbolism was not lost. In 1950, Truman, on his plane, made MacArthur wait outside before dressing him down.

McChrystal walked away with his job as Afghan commander intact after the Copenhagen incident, with a warning from Obama: Take care of business and shut up about those who disagree with you. McChrystal chose to ignore the warning. He allowed the Rolling Stone reporter stunning access to himself and his trash-talking staff. They kept blabbing to the reporter when the Icelandic volcano grounded flights in Europe and they had to take a boozy bus ride to Berlin.

They kept blabbing when the reporter went back to Afghanistan with them, and McChrystal confronted soaring casualty rates and Afghan corruption that forced him to postpone the Kandahar offensive.

McChrystal might even survive the latest firestorm if he could point to success in the war, but the most damning quote in the magazine article put his future in doubt.

It came from a sergeant who put it to McChrystal straight up: "Sir, some of the guys here, sir, think we're losing, sir."